


the seoul institute of the known

by quietdays



Category: SEVENTEEN (Band)
Genre: M/M, Slow Burn, like slow burn, tma au because im obsessed lol
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-03-16
Updated: 2020-03-16
Packaged: 2021-02-28 20:01:37
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 8,312
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23172862
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/quietdays/pseuds/quietdays
Summary: There is a vacant position of Head Archivist at The Institute. Lee Jihoon gladly accepts it without reading the fine print.
Relationships: Lee Jihoon | Woozi/Lee Seokmin | DK, Lee Jihoon | Woozi/Yoon Jeonghan, Lee Seokmin | DK/Yoon Jeonghan
Comments: 6
Kudos: 15





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> this has workskins!  
> please enable them !
> 
> so uh, hm, my entire being was consumed by the magnus archives so i was like ummm huh lets write about it but also i didnt feel confident in my abilities to write my faves from there so lets just throw the entire svt to that universe but also make it my rarepairs because i have to make the food in my own house
> 
> uhhh if you do keep up with tma, a lot of the plot points and symbolism might be familiar BUT i promise you i am taking a whole new route for this au! i still want it to be really scary but we will see if my writing abilities can emulate the horror of tma lol
> 
> have fun reading!

Min Eunji was officially declared a missing person on the afternoon of December 16, 2019. After five months of radio silence from her during an archaeological dig in South Asia, the Seoul Research Institute of the Known finally decided to come clean to her family and the public. It was a long and tedious process that Lee Jihoon had to be around for, seeing as he was assistant to the woman who disappeared into thin air. 

After the press conference held by the Institute, it was interview after interview next. Some from the police who at first thought he had to do something about her disappearance. Some from journalists chasing for the next scoop. Lee Jihoon didn’t particularly care about it. He answered truthfully about what he’d known surrounding her disappearance, and after a few weeks both the police and journalists went on to harass someone else that was more forthcoming. That was not the same case for the people who, for some reason, felt anger about the entire situation.

Three months was what it took for the outrage to die down. Three months of having to go to work as protestors stayed outside, shouting to finally shut down the Institute. Three months of having anonymous hate mail sent to his apartment. Three months of being accused of working for a cult. It was not the first time the Institute made national news as a link or the cause of someone dying or disappearing, and it will certainly not be the last.

It’s not as if Jihoon didn’t care about Min Eunji. To a certain degree, he did. After all, he worked with the woman for at least a few months and she was likeable enough if not a full blown weirdo at times. There were times where she’d somehow know things about Jihoon that he thought he didn’t tell anyone else or times where she would be talking to someone in thin air, but she was an academic. Jihoon used to have those weird, kooky professors back when he was still in college and that was usually the norm for him. Sure, Min Eunji was a little bit crazy but that didn’t mean Lee Jihoon didn’t care about her. 

It was only that.

Her disappearance did open up some new doors for him.

* * *

“I am not a bad person.” Jihoon says into thin air as he reads the email sent to him by his boss at the Institute. It was a letter offering a promotion. Instead of being only an assistant archivist, he would now be the head archivist, the position that was previously held by Min Eunji. Along with that promotion would be a new hefty paycheck and new hours that were more reasonable than his previous position. Min Eunji was a good person but that didn’t mean she didn’t have unreasonable requests at times like being forced to come to work to look for documents at twelve am or be forced to break into a person’s home just to find information about the current case they were working on.

“I am not a bad person.” Jihoon once again says into thin air as he replies to the email. He’d be more than happy to accept the job and he will do his best to continue the archiving process Min Eunji has started on. He won’t let her memory down. If not him, then who? Some rando on the street? No. Of course not. Jihoon was the one who worked with her, of course he’d be the one who can continue what she started.

“I am not a bad person.” Jihoon says, this time to someone else. Particularly his closest friend since college over coffee. “I mean, I’m not a bad person for saying yes to this, am I Seokmin?”

Seokmin takes a sip off of his iced Americano and frowns. “I don’t understand why you think you’re a bad person? You’re not the reason why she disappeared, Jihoon.”

“I mean, I know that.” Jihoon replies, a beat too slow. He was distracted by the cobwebs that were by the window of the cafe. He might need to switch cafes soon. “It’s just that, I think it’s all moving too fast.”

“Jihoon, it’s been three months.” Seokmin looks at him with an expression that clearly screams how shocked he is at Jihoon’s new behavior. Usually, he’d be all over this promotion but there were other complications as well.

“Again, I know that.” Jihoon replies, forcing himself to look away from the cobwebs and back to Seokmin. “I--you know I can’t just shake the feeling that it was supposed to be _me_.”

“If this is some misguided sense of survivor’s guilt then--”

“But it’s not!” Jihoon exclaims loudly, making all of the people in that cafe look at the two of them. He turns red for a moment before continuing in a smaller voice, “It wasn’t.”

“Explain to me then,” Seokmin frowns, “This isn’t like you. I mean, obviously I don’t expect you to be overjoyed about getting promoted if the cost was someone you knew going missing but…”

“I was supposed to go with her.” Jihoon exhales, not meeting Seokmin’s eyes. His focus once again comes back on the cobwebs and he cannot shake the feeling that he should dust it away.

“Why didn’t you go then?” Seokmin asks, his voice full of curiosity. This wasn’t what he originally heard, especially from the police reports.

“There was a problem with my passport.” Jihoon replies, recalling the memory. “At the last minute, a week before I was supposed to board the plane, I was called to inform that there was a problem with my passport by the government and that I should cancel all of my plans until further notice.”

“And then…?”

“A week later, literally the moment the plane took off with her inside, the government called me back to let me know the problem with my passport was done.” Jihoon continues, “My boss told me to not follow her and just stay to do work here. A month later, she stops responding to us.”

“Jihoon, that’s not your fault.” Seokmin puts his coffee back on the table and takes Jihoon’s hands. “That’s a freaky coincidence. You know that, right?”

“I know.” Jihoon replies but Seokmin clearly doesn’t believe him. He doesn’t know who exhales a big sigh but what he does know is that the rest of their meeting continues in relative silence, Seokmin’s hands still on Jihoon.

Jihoon’s eyes do not look at anything else aside from the cobwebs by the window.

* * *

Lee Jihoon’s first morning as the Head Archivist of the Seoul Research Institute of the Known went like any other day. He woke up, took a bath, and dressed up in clothes that were a tiny bit more formal than usual. He was now the boss, and he had to look like it.

The commute to the institute went as smoothly as it could. Despite it being three months since the initial announcement of Eunji’s disappearance, the general public backlash over that incident died down as people found other things to get angry about. Of course, that didn’t stop a handful of people from still protesting and holding placards outside the institution. Jihoon didn’t think of it at all, but it used to be very harsh. Once, he had someone throw an egg at him just for showing up at work and he had to wonder about the anger he felt. It wasn’t his fault Eunji went missing, if anything he should’ve disappeared along with her.

Still, after a few months it was bearable enough to walk inside the Institute using the front entrance instead of sneaking to the back. However, not having a lot of people protesting doesn’t mean still not being jeered at or being harassed.

As Jihoon walks towards his workplace, trying to ignore the jeers by the remaining protests by raising the volume of his music, someone grabs his hand and shoves him into a nearby alleyway. Panic rises inside of him and he’s about to shout when the person who grabs him covers his mouth. Jihoon still attempts to shout, albeit his efforts come out muffled.

“Don’t shout,” A familiar desperate voice tells him. Jihoon’s eyes widened as he recognized who the voice was. “Please, just don’t make any noise. I’m not here to hurt you.”

The grip on his mouth faltered for a moment and Jihoon used his other hand to forcibly remove it. He then walked a few steps away from the man. The alleyway was dark yet Jihoon can still make out the familiar face of the man.

“Jesus Christ, Mingyu.” Jihoon exclaims, half in anger and half relieved that he wasn’t about to meet his doom just yet. “What the fuck is wrong with you?”

“Listen, Eunji can’t be dead. She can’t be.” Mingyu rattles on, his face in dead seriousness that Jihoon can’t write this off as denial. Jihoon's anger slowly melts away into concern and worry. Mingyu, despite never being that close to him outside of Eunji, was still a kid. He was still a kid. 

“It’s been four months, as much as I hate to admit it.” Jihoon sighs, patting Mingyu’s back. “I know she was like a sister to you but we have to accept the truth."

When Mingyu still doesn't reply, Jihoon sighs and rubs the bridge of his nose. "Look, how about we go inside the Institute? Have some tea, let’s talk about this.”

“No!” Mingyu snaps, “I’m not setting foot inside that hellish establishment ever again.”

“Okay, listen: The Institute tried all that it could but they couldn’t recover the body nor make contact with her again--”

Mingyu shakes his head frantically. Jihoon makes contact with his eyes and he shivers. His eyes look bottomless, like there is only the deep and if he goes inside he will only drown. Strangely enough, Jihoon feels the beginning of intense curiosity rise up inside him.

“Jihoon-hyung, you’ve been working for this institute for how many years now?” Mingyu says in complete seriousness as he becomes completely still. “And you’re about to take over my sister’s previous position, correct?”

“H-how did you know that? That wasn’t released to the public.” Jihoon feels a shiver crawl up his spine as he takes a step back into the light. “That’s not gonna be released until later this month.”

“I’ve come here to tell you two things.” Mingyu takes a step forward, “Firstly, my sister Eunji is still alive, I want you to find her, _please_.”

Suddenly Mingyu’s eyes look like the same eyes Jihoon has known all his years in the Institute. The same boyish brown eyes that’s currently clouded in desperation. This is the eyes of a man that truly believes in what he is saying. Strangely enough, Jihoon can find it in himself to believe and help him. He doesn’t know if it’s because he truly believes Eunji is still alive in South Asia or if it’s the fact that he has never seen the other this desperate before.

He’s heard of Eunji and Mingyu’s close relationship. How could he not when Eunji was so proud of how Mingyu had come? Always bragging about Mingyu, always telling everyone that she was proud to have him as a brother, even if it wasn’t truly by blood. From a boy orphaned by a tragic skydiving accident blossoming into a boy who’s earned his place in the world. 

“What’s the other thing?” Jihoon asks.

Mingyu shoots out and grabs his arm, once again preventing Jihoon from escaping from the alleyway and into the light. “Tell me you’ll find her first.”

Jihoon keeps silent and Mingyu tightens his grip on his wrist making him yelp in pain.

“What the hell man--”

“Please.” Mingyu pleads, desperation bleeding into his voice.

“Yes, sure! Whatever!” Jihoon responds as the grip on his wrists begin to tighten. “I’ll find Eunji! I will!”

Mingyu’s grip on his wrist loosen and soon he lets go of Jihoon. The shorter man rubs his wrist in agony. He wants to leave, he very much so wants to leave. Yet, his body makes no move to leave the ground he is standing on, no matter how much he wills it.

“The second thing?” Jihoon asks, still rubbing his wrist.

“Don’t trust the Head of the Institute.” Mingyu replies simply, his eyes once again becoming bottomless pits of nothing.

“Don’t trust Hanjin? That’s my boss, dude?” Jihoon looks at him, now confused and annoyed at the same time. “I know you’re scared of him but-”

“No, you don’t understand.” Mingyu replies, shaking his head. “Don’t trust Jeonghan.”

“ _Jeonghan?_ The Institute founder?” Jihoon is now really confused. “Mingyu, he’s been dead for ten years now.”

“Just, don’t trust him. Both of them.” Mingyu replies, “Haven’t you wondered why Hanjin looks young? Didn’t you notice that he’s apparently pushing forty and yet he looks that young? Come on, Archivist, don’t play idiot in front of me!”

“But your sister was also pushing forty,” Jihoon countered, too scared by the ever changing eyes of Mingyu to properly chastise the other on his impoliteness. It no longer… feels like him. “Yet she still looked like she was in her twenties!”

“Eunji didn’t tell you.” Mingyu blinks as realization dawns over him. “Eunji didn’t tell you and now Hanjin’s going to--”

Mingyu laughs bitterly as he runs his hands over his hair and face. “Eunji didn’t tell you and you’re now the next archivist.”

“What?” Jihoon looks at him, his expression twisted in confusion. “What didn’t she tell me?”

“She didn’t tell you, oh my god, she didn’t tell you.” Mingyu repeats again, each time he looks like he can’t believe this entire situation. Each time, Jihoon doesn’t recognize the person in front of him. Mingy looks at Jihoon, half in pity. “She really didn’t tell you, huh?”

“I don’t understand,” Jihoon tries again, “What was she supposed to tell me?”

Just before Mingyu can reply, he goes perfectly still. Perfectly silent as his face pales to a sickly white. Jihoon can feel a shadow behind him and he turns to look.

“Hanjin.” Mingyu says.

“Tu, tu, tu.” Hanjin waves a finger in displease. “Mingyu-ssi, I’m still older than you even if I look like this.”

“Ahjussi then.” He replies like the cheeky youngster he’s supposed to be. But something feels off. Something feels a lot off.

“Ah, kids.” Hanjin just says, looking at Jihoon as if this were a perfectly normal scenario. As if it was perfectly normal to have three grown adults talking cryptically in a dark alleyway. He takes a look at Jihoon and reassuringly pats him on the back. “Are you okay, Jihoon? I noticed you weren’t in when you normally would be early. Especially since this isn’t like any other day, is it?”

Jihoon sneaks a glance at Mingyu and then back to Hanjin. “Yeah, me and Gyu over here were just having a chat.”

“Ah, a chat now is it?” Hanjin smiles as he says this. He takes a glance at Mingyu who noticeably looks scared. “I keep telling you Mingyu, Eunji is dead.”

“No, she’s not.” Mingyu practically snarls at him. “I don’t know what you’ve done with my sister, but I’ll find out, you, you, you--Monster!”

“Now is that any way to talk to your elders?” Hanjin doesn’t look a tiny bit affected. “How about you run along now, Mingyu? I’m sure Eunji doesn’t appreciate you being cahorts with them when she’s done so much to not involve you here.”

An unrecognizable expression takes over Mingyu’s entire face. He takes one last look at Jihoon. “Don’t trust that man, whatever you do, just don’t trust him at all.”

Mingyu turns around and leaves. Hanjin smiles at him while the both of them watch his retreating figure. Finally, once they’re sure Mingyu has finally left, Hanjin turns to Jihoon.

“Why don’t we go to my office to talk about your new position, okay?” Hanjin asks him, already turning the other direction in order to leave. He steps into the light, leaving Jihoon in complete darkness.

Jihoon takes a few moments to look at the direction Mingyu went. He steps forward and hesitates as he looks back at Hanjin waiting for him in the light before changing his mind. He turns around and follows his boss to the Institute. Jihoon was sure that the path led to a dead end, that it led to nowhere. He shakes his head, perhaps he just misremembered that particular way. He ignores the nagging feeling at the back of his mind that something is wrong.

Inside the dark alleyway, a spider skittles along a cobweb that was previously not there.


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> the first statement

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> writing horror is hard... how do horror writers do it even....  
> i would like if u got even the tiniest bit of spook from it

Yun Hanjin’s office is an old but clean office filled to the brim with photos over the years of the Institute. It’s one of the first rooms that was built in the Institute. The walls were covered with pictures of the Institute over the years. It was like it’s very own museum. There was no space on the walls where it didn’t have a photo that was important to the history of the Institute. It even had one of the rarer photos of the founder, albeit it wasn’t a clear one. It was even a game to new employees if they can find the photo of the founder. It took Jihoon weeks before he finally found the photo of the founder. He had light hair with a light smile, and was in the corner of the photo that was filled with so many people. Jihoon figured it was a hard game to play seeing as he looked like Hanjin so much that at first glance it looked like a photo taken recently. 

“Earth to Jihoon,” Hanjin’s voice snaps him back to reality, one where he’s sitting on a plush velvet chair in front of Hanjin’s mahogany desk. Even if the office was old, it still reeked of class and money. “Earth to Jihoon?”

Jihoon slightly shakes his head. “I’m sorry, I was in my thoughts.”

“I thought I almost lost you there.” Hanjin laughs, his eyes crinkling as he does. Soon, those eyes soften into concern as Hanjin frowns at the shorter man. “What’s wrong Jihoon? You’re normally not like this.”

“I’m sorry,” Jihoon sighs. “I guess I’m just thrown off by Mingyu from earlier.”

“Mingyu?” Hanjin tilts his head and blinks a couple of times. “I’m surprised. You do know his words are of a grieving brother, right?”

“I know,” Jihoon admits. His brain keeps on flashing back to Mingyu’s eyes, alternating between desperate and vast darkness. At any moment, he felt like he was about to die. “It just sounded too…”

“Delusional? Deranged?” Hanjin sighs and rubs the bridge of his nose. “Jihoon, you know what happened to Eunji.”

Jihoon fully knows what happened to Eunji. He was in charge of communicating with her after all. That was the work he had to do instead of catching another plane to South Asia to help her with work. He knows how many days and weeks he had to wait before he had to confirm her as MIA. He knows how many months the Institute took in order to come out in the public with this information.

“The body was never found,” Jihoon points out in a small voice. His elbows are resting on the handles of the velvet chair as he looks at Hanjin with a clear and level expression. “You know that she was never found.”

“Jihoon, she got lost in a forest. Finding a body wasn’t the top priority for us,” Hanjin tells him, already looking exhausted. “You know as well as I do that a body not being found just gives us a false sense of hope. That’s what Mingyu’s belief is resting on.”

Jihoon remains silent. Hanjin’s words should logically make sense. This wasn’t the first time the Institute lost someone or handled cases about missing people. Jihoon knows that looking at it logically means that there’s no chance of Eunji to be alive in the jungles of South Asia. The thing is, the more Jihoon thinks about it--it really doesn’t make any sense at all. He  _ knows _ the woman, he was practically her right hand in this line of work. Eunji was competent at her work, always having back up plan upon back up plan that just thinking about it makes his head hurt. He was certain that even if a scenario arose that would lead to her untimely demise, Eunji would find a way to send any kind of message to confirm it. She wouldn’t just… disappear like that.

Hanjin sighs once more, noticing Jihoon once again retreating into his thoughts. “Are you ready to take Eunji’s place or do I need to give you a few more weeks?”

Jihoon’s blank expression suddenly twists into one of surprise. “You don’t have to do that.”

“If you’re going to be like this, then I might have to.” Hanjin looks stern. This isn’t something he’ll back off on. 

Jihoon shakes his head. As much as he wants to pursue this, he knows nothing better will be had from pressing on Hanjin about the matter. If anything it could do more harm than good. He needs to be here. Looking from his home would be useless while looking in the Institute, one of the strongholds of all sorts of information in Korea, would be more beneficial to finding the former archivist.

“I can do it.” Jihoon tells him, his voice unwavering. He can compress the weird feelings he feels around Eunji’s death. Fold them so tiny that they don’t bother him right now. “It’s just been a weird morning.”

“I see,” Hanjin’s mouth twists into a weird sly smile. “I suppose I don’t have to tell you what you have to do as head archivist?”

“I just need to help with the upkeep of the tapes right? Take statements of people who come here in person.” Jihoon lists out, “Organize the tapes and then label out which needs to go out of the Institute and which stays here.”

“The standards for which one goes out?”

Jihoon rolls his eyes. “Hanjin.”

“Humor me,” Hanjin’s smile doesn’t leave his face even for a minute.

“The one that can’t be explained can’t stay here, the ones that can be explained through logic stays here.” Jihoon explains, his tone verging on being bored. “I still don’t understand why we take the statements of deranged lunatics.”

“Hm, I suppose that’s a testament to the fact that you still quite don’t understand the work we do here.” Hanjin replies, not in a tone that seems condescending but rather in a tone as if it’s obvious. Very matter of factly. “Don’t take that in the wrong way, okay?”

“Yeah, yeah,” Jihoon rolls his eyes, and stands up halfway from his chair. “Can I go now?”

“Wait,” Hanjin raises a hand signalling Jihoon to stop. He opens a drawer on his desk and takes out an old cassette recorder and a small microphone to go with it. “Take this, you might need it.”

“For what?” Jihoon scoffs but still takes the recorder in his hands. “Jesus Christ, Hanjin this thing is  _ ancient _ .”

“Well, you might find it hard to record certain statements.” Hanjin’s smile is back on his face. Jihoon wants it to disappear. “Besides, this is the only recorder that can be used. It’s written in Yoon Jeonghan’s handbook.”

“Your great grandfather is a bastard, anyone tell you that, yet?”

Hanjin merely laughs. It grates on Jihoon’s ears. “So I’ve been told.”

Jihoon shakes his head. “Can I go now?”

“Sure,” Hanjin tells him, pointing him towards the door. “There’s someone you need to interview, after all. A young man ready to give his statement.”

“At this time?” Jihoon looks at his watch, “Shit. There was a Hansol who’s gonna talk to us today, that must be him.”

Jihoon gives him a lazy salute and then makes his way to the door. The recorder he’s carrying with one hand is light. At that moment, he realizes that the recorder he’s carrying probably has no tape if it was if it was this light. He stops for a bit before internally shrugging. If Eunji had to use this recorder, then there was a possibility there were tapes in her-- _ his _ office. 

“Jihoon?” Hanjin says at the last minute, before Jihoon opens the door. 

Jihoon looks back at Hanjin’s still smiling face. “Yeah?”

“Have a good first day,” Hanjin simply tells him. His back is straightened out while his hands are rested on the table. Behind him, a large painting of Yoon Jeonghan looms over him, almost as if it’s watching everything. “We expect great things from you guys.”

“Thank you,” Jihoon simply replies before finally stepping out of Hanjin’s office. He ignores the nagging feeling that there was a double entendre to the last statement that he wasn’t privy to. 

* * *

Chwe Hansol was already sitting on a chair when he entered his office. He was a young man, probably barely a sophomore in college. If it weren’t for the fact that he was a tiny bit skinnier, Jihoon would say that there was something about him that reminded him about Mingyu. Probably the way he held himself: laid back, almost barely moving besides with how fast he’s bouncing one leg.

“Did I make you wait too long?” Jihoon says as he enters the office. He quickly puts the recorder and microphone on his desk and sits on his chair, facing opposite the younger man. “Sorry about that, was held up by something.”

Chwe Hansol stares at him almost as if he doesn’t know what’s happening. He points a finger towards him and tilts his head. “You’re not the girl.”

“Eunji?” Jihoon’s eyebrows scrunches up in confusion. “You know her?”

“I give my statements to her.” Hansol replies, as if that explained everything. “She was the one who’s supposed to take my statement.”

“Oh,” Jihoon is at a loss. He doesn’t know how it was possible for someone to not know what had happened to Eunji when it was covered by every national news media there was. “You don’t know?”

“Know what?”

“She’s dead, I’m the new archivist.” Jihoon replies grimly, “Does that change anything?”

“She’s dead? But that’s impossible!” Hansol almost stands up from his chair. “I would know if she-” He sits back down in disbelief. His head continuously shook from left to right as he looked like he was in deep thought.

“Again, does this change anything?” Jihoon patiently repeats, “You can talk to my boss if you’d like to clear things up.”

“No!” Hansol snaps out from his thinking, as if the mere thought of talking to Hanjin physically disgusted him. He looks at Jihoon appraisingly before looking at him straight in the eye. “You’d do.”

“Good.” Jihoon forces a smile out. He didn’t know a lot of people hated Hanjin this much. He opens a drawer and starts rummaging around, “Can you give me a moment while I look for a tape somewhere here--”

“Huh?” Hansol says, confused. He pokes at the old recorder. “But isn’t there a tape inside this recorder already?” 

Jihoon is surprised by this but nonetheless takes the recorder and opens the slot for the tape. Sure, enough there already was a brand new tape already inside. He was sure he remembered the recorder being far too light, meaning the possibility that there was already a tape loaded into it was close to zero. It was physically impossible for the recorder to be as light as he remembered it with a tape already inside, but there it was. The impossible happening in front of his eyes.

“How curious…” Jihoon says. Perhaps he just remembered wrong or felt wrong. After all, this wasn’t the weirdest thing that happened to him today.

“Is there anything wrong?” Hansol says and Jihoon remembers he has a job to do. Mysteries were never his strong suit.

“Ah, well! I suppose we’re ready to begin then.” Jihoon says. He plugs in the microphone in the recorder and pushes it to the anticipating Hansol. He pushes the record button and the recorder clicks as the tape rolls. “Statement of Chwe Hansol, regarding the…”

“My failed attempt to kill a maze.”

“His… Failed attempt to kill a maze.” Jihoon repeats and the realization that the first statement he was going to record as an archivist was of a lunatic made something inside of him die a tiny bit. “Well, whenever you’re ready then.”

“This was why I was hesitant to tell you about this.” Hansol groans as he covers his face, “Eunji  _ believed _ me when no one did. She believed when I started seeing the wax people and even urged me to devote my life in getting rid of the world of things I deemed too monstrous to live. She’s the reason why I even  _ know _ this particular room existed.”

“See, have you ever been in a really good maze before? I’m not talking about the ones like the glass maze in Lotte World. I’m talking about an  _ honest _ to goodness maze. A big one, with too many rooms. You’ve been in one? ” Hansol asks, and when Jihoon nods, he continues. “Well, know that scary feeling you get when you’re in the middle of the maze? The lingering sense of panic you feel when you think you’re never gonna come out ever again and then eventually you meet someone that’s also lost and the both of you try to come out together?”

“That moment of fear is what that maze was after. I wouldn’t even have noticed it if it weren’t for Eunji telling me about it the last time I was here,” Hansol admits, “Kind of shameful, especially when you consider the fact that I’ve dedicated my life chasing these kinds of things.”

“There was a temporary fairground by the outskirts of Seoul that Eunji directed me to. It was big, but smaller than all the other amusement parks.” Hansol says, using his hands to demonstrate the size of the fairground. “At first I thought Eunji was tipping me about the clowns of that travelling circus and that’s the first thing I go there for, the travelling circus. It made sense to me too, especially since you guys always seem to butt heads with that particular entity.”

“So I get there, right? I buy my ticket, I get inside the fairgrounds and then I head straight to the clown show. No sense in trying to delay the inevitable, when I think I know why Eunji sent me there. Besides, ever since 2014, that lot was getting weaker and everyone knew it. It was one of my boring hunts, but then what can you do? Everyone was getting quiet and it was only these fairgrounds that were acting up.” Hansol shrugs in a what can you do manner, “But while I’m standing in line, waiting for my turn to get inside and see what these clowns were up to; I hear the conversation from behind me.”

“They were talking about the maze of mirrors the circus had in the grounds. Personally, I wouldn’t have thought nothing of it. It looked like it was a shit maze with how small it was, so I would’ve written it off as nothing if it weren’t for the fact that they said the next things they did.”

“There were… There were reports of people not coming out of the maze, you see. You and I both know that’s impossible, right? A maze should have an entrance and an ending. It can’t go on forever and ever and ever, trapping people inside.” Hansol nods along, “A lightbulb goes out in my head. I wasn’t here for the clowns, I was  _ never _ here for the clowns. I was here for the  _ maze _ . I was here for the  _ Madness _ .”

“That made much more sense to me. I don’t get up with the kind of business you guys do but if there was something you would hate more than  _ Not Knowing…  _ It would be  _ Madness _ .” Hansol realizes what he said then tries to clarify. “I mean, don’t get me wrong, you guys are also certified fucking insane but, in an organized way.”

Jihoon can’t help but snort. “Thank you for the shining compliment Mr. Hansol.”

“You know what I’m saying, only someone not right in the head would want to know more about  _ them _ , would attempt to codify  _ them _ .” Hansol shakes his head almost in disbelief. “That’s better than most of the monsters out there, you know. Doesn’t change the fact that it’s an absolute waste of time.”

“If you would continue with your story?” Jihoon prods Hansol, already tired of dealing with this particular statement.

“Oh, yeah! Right, so. I leave the line for the clowns, I can always come back to them if they make a fuss and it’s more fun to just leave them alone, gaining strength.” Hansol’s face grows dark as he smiles, “There’s no better feeling than getting rid of a monster that thinks of itself as god, you know? The clowns were small at this point, that’s not a fun hunt at all if you compare it to the maze. The fact that it had that reputation means it took enough people to feed itself. Thrill seekers are going to it,  _ willingly _ . To something like the maze, that kind of thing is…Like paradise dropped onto it’s lap.”

“Do you know why thrill seekers are what we look for? Why every single one of us that are in the know were in one way or another thrill seekers?” Hansol asks, head tilting. When Jihoon doesn’t respond he continues, almost laughing: “Everything starts with the chase! We all want something. We want power? Knowledge? Make each other feel an intense amount of fear? We’re all chasing for that. We all think we know what we want when we chase something. We’re confident that we’re not going to be like the last person who ended up getting exactly what they deserved, but the thing is: we are exactly like that. They know it better than anyone else. After all there’s no better fear than getting exactly what you want and realizing, this wasn’t what you wanted at all. No better taste of fear than one that stems from betrayal.”

“At this point, I’m already giddy inside as I’m waiting to get inside the maze. I  _ knew _ it was going to be a good hunt. I could feel immense power from the madness coming from the inside and I wasn’t even inside yet.” Hansol smiles as he sinks into his seat in satisfaction. “When I got inside the maze, it took me every inch of my will to not just start breaking mirrors left and right. They let you inside with a group, you see. The management of the circus probably already knew the reputation that the maze was getting and was doing its best to contain it.”

“That was a bit of a problem for me. One, if these people saw me start going on a rampage… That’s the easiest way for me to get arrested and to have a record. That’s not what I want. Furthest from it, that’d hinder my chances of getting in the police academy. I wasn’t about to risk the future of everchasing I wanted just for this maze.” Hansol nods again, affirming his logic. He believed every word he was saying right now, that much Jihoon could see. 

“Secondly, I knew the maze hunted individually.” Hansol continued, “It was sadistic, like the rest of you. It wouldn’t feel satisfaction from dooming an entire group in one go. It liked taking its time, it  _ relished _ in it. I understood the logic in that too, you know. The more you prolong something, the scarier it gets. That’s when I knew I had to find a way to break away from the group, quickly.”

“All things considered, it wasn’t that hard. The group I was in were two couples on a group date. They weren’t even paying attention when I went a different turn from them.” Hansol shook his head in disbelief, “When I broke apart from the group, that’s when I truly knew the chase was on. There were two new objectives for me. One, don’t get out and two, kill the maze.”

“Normally, I wouldn’t be this unprepared. I may like hunting but it’s also a system. Kinda like you guys, you know? I also take my time researching the next thing I was hunting down but,” Hansol closes his eyes, “This was a different circumstance. I wasn’t prepared and I couldn’t come back another time.”

“The moment I broke away from the group, I could feel the maze ring out imaginary alarm bells. It knew someone like me was there to kill it. It knew that it couldn’t survive an encounter with me. I was a bit flattered of course and even considered purposefully letting it go but,” Hansol shook his head. “Eunji asked me to take care of it and what kind of business partner will I be if I didn’t follow the orders of my elder, you know?”

“Why couldn’t you leave?” Jihoon asked which earned him a look of disbelief from Hansol.

“You don’t know? You honestly can’t pierce it together?” Hansol shook his head, almost as if he couldn’t believe what he was hearing from the other. “You’re an archivist and you don’t know?”

“I’m new here,” Jihoon reminded him through gritted teeth. How was he supposed to know how a lunatic would think?

“Well, I suppose there’s that excuse.” Hansol sighed in disappointment but nevertheless he still continues. “Well, I couldn’t get out because the maze knew I was out to get it. If I would come back another time, it would’ve left. That would mean months of research and that’s really no fun. At all. I was already there and I knew if I found it, I could take care of it.”

“Besides my respect for Eunji, that was the only thing that made me stay. The  _ if _ part of it.” Hansol admitted, “There was no guarantee that I would find the avatar of the maze, which made me want to stay and find it for real. That was hard because this was the madness’ place. It had complete control of all the mirrors and was actively pushing me out of its’ center.”

“How did you stay inside then?” Jihoon asked. The story, even if impossible, was compelling and made him want to know more about it.

“Well, I used my ears and eyes. The outside was loud and if I strained my ears, I could hear the exit from several meters away. If the path continuously had one way, I would go back to where it divulged.” Hansol answered very matter-of-factly. “It was going to slip at one point or another. I just needed to be patient.”

“And after a few hours, it did.” Hansol smiles again as he folds his hand over his lap. “There was another person inside. I think it was someone that the madness took. He looked ragged, hungry and dehydrated. Smelled bad too. He’s been inside the maze for a long time. His face lit up when he saw another person traversing the halls of the maze.”

“I gave him some of my water, he clearly needed it more than me.” Hansol shrugged, “I may hunt things for fun but I still had a heart you know. I’m not off the deep end just yet.”

“Then, what happened?” Jihoon pushed on. Hansol looked at him with eyes that were filled with nothing but the wilderness, a vast empty darkness. 

“I took the knife I was hiding in my pockets then plunged it deep into his neck.” Hansol continued as if what he was just saying was a normal thing that happened in his everyday life. 

Jihoon’s eyes widened and he searched for any kind of tell on the younger’s face that would say he was just lying. Hansol must’ve seen the concern in his face because he just laughed.

“Are you worried, archivist?” Hansol tilted his head, “That much was a mercy for him. A quick death. Especially since he was already marked. Even if I helped him get out of the maze, that man would just come back to the maze. You don’t know this too?”

Jihoon was speechless. He couldn’t reply as he was still looking for the words to say. Hansol ignored this and continued with his statement.

“He couldn’t scream, I made sure that the knife went all the way through. The blood was everywhere though and I was thankful I had the mind to wear all black that day. Especially after what happened next.” Hansol’s face didn’t change from the mild glee he previously had. “There was another man who appeared, this time they were two.”

“I knew the person controlling the room was one of them, I just couldn’t figure out who.” Hansol frowned. “He was with one of his prey you see. I’d find out later that’s how he gets you. He pretends to be lost in the maze with you. Of course, you’d trust him because he’s the only human you’ve seen in hours and you want to go home. He leads you deeper in the maze and then, he leaves you. Some are lucky to get out, they do go missing a few months later though.”

“They saw the body and both appropriately reacted like they should, with hostility. They ran away from me right away, especially since they already saw the blood in my hands.” Hansol shrugged, “That was the worst thing one can do especially if you’re dealing with someone like me. Nothing can get me going like a good chase and that gave me a pretty good idea on who the owner was between the two of them.”

“So I run after them, right? I have my target, their scent is locked on my nose already. At this point, it’s almost impossible for me to lose my sight of them.” Hansol sighs at this part. “Except, I kinda did.”

“Well, what happened next was a blur. I’m sure the entity knew it wasn’t going to lose me easily and it also knew it was still young. It can’t die now, especially when it still needs to gain more power.” Hansol mused, “So, it did the next best thing in an attempt to lose me. It threw the person it held onto to me and threw us out.”

“The impact of being out must’ve rendered me unconscious. The next thing I knew, I was being woken up outside of the fair grounds by a couple of officers who thought I was drunk. Three months have passed since I went inside the maze.” Hansol says, a bit dismayed as he recalled the events. “It was a very cheap move. When I checked the grounds the next day, the maze wasn’t there anymore. I mean, the physical building was there, but it just wasn’t the same, y’know? It was boring, but the thing is, what that maze didn’t consider was that: I _ like _ a chase.”

“It might not be today. It might not be tomorrow. Hell, it might not even be this year but sooner or later, I’ll track it down again.” Hansol gives out a wolfish grin that honest-to-goodness scares Jihoon to his very core. He was no longer human. “And when I track it down again, it’s not gonna get away that easily.”

“How about the other human?” Jihoon finally found the voice that he lost. “What happened to him?”

“Oh? The maze’s prey?” Hansol thinks for a moment before shrugging. “He wasn’t there anymore when I woke up. Either way, it really doesn’t mean a thing. He’s  _ marked _ by the maze. It’s gonna come for him one way or another.”

“Ah,” Jihoon replies. The cold horror of what he's been listening to still permeates within the inside of his veins but he is still a professional. “The body that you killed?”

“Oh, I watched the news after that and they still haven’t found it.” Hansol replies truthfully, “If I had to take a guess, that means it’s still within the maze.”

“I… see.” Jihoon doesn’t know what else to say. “Will that be all Mister Chwe?”

Hansol takes another moment to think. His mouth curves downward as he does so. “I guess that’s it.”

“Well,” Jihoon feels relief spread in his body. “Statement e--”

“Wait!” Hansol stops Jihoon from saying the words that would officially end this encounter. “I’ll have to say though, my contract only was with Eunji. It doesn’t extend to you.”

“I beg your pardon?”

“Well, Eunji hired me. As her bodyguard.” Hansol explains slowly, as if Jihoon was a child. “If she’s dead, that doesn’t extend to you.”

“I--well, I wasn’t expecting to require your services.” Jihoon replies back. His hands move to the stop button, “If that’ll be all--statement ends.”

The recording stops with a click of a button.

* * *

Jihoon takes a deep breath as Hansol leaves the room. Within this time, he’d be expected to start recording again to give his preliminary thoughts on the statement he just heard from the man. He takes a moment to calm down. There was no way everything the other person said was real in any regard at all.

“I have to get used to this.” Jihoon mutters to himself as his hands move back to the record button. “I’m the head archivist now, the amount of crazy people I’ll talk to will increase by a lot.”

He takes the microphone from where it used to be and sets it in front of him. He pushes the record button for the second time of that day. The only time he starts talking is when he’s certain he hears the tape rolling.

“Well, where to begin?” Jihoon starts. Where to begin indeed? There were a lot of things that needed unpacking and he doesn’t know where to begin. “I suppose it’d be a good choice to start with Chwe Hansol.”

“A complete, certified lunatic is all I can say, “Jihoon voices out into the microphone. His hands are folded over each other as he does his recording. “I think the information that Eunji was willingly letting him still give statements wasn’t a new one but the mention of him being her bodyguard definitely was.”

“I looked up the fair and travelling circus he was talking about and there was something that matched it faintly. A Jeon Travelling Circus.” Jihoon says, “However, the glass maze was a new addition. It wasn’t hard to find rumors of it online and most of the things Chwe Hansol was saying had some basis in truth.”

“The thing is… The humanization of fear? Entities called ‘Madness’ and ‘Not Knowing’?” Jihoon repeats the words Hansol used in disbelief. “Those are embellishments, I say. I think the more rational way of looking at it was that… he ran away from home, he didn’t know how to say it so he decided to spin out a few lies about getting lost inside a glass maze.”

At this point, Jihoon would be ready to just stop the recording here. Just label the tape accordingly and send it to wherever Hanjin decides to send all the tapes he deemed illogical. However, there was a nagging feeling that wasn’t all it was. A nagging feeling that there was something more sinister underneath all of it. There were inconsistencies with the theory Jihoon offered, but that could easily be written off as just the imagination of an overactive teenager. Although, Chwe Hansol didn’t seem to be like that.

“But,” Jihoon continued into his microphone. “There are a few things that struck me the most while listening to the boy talk. One, how was it that he was so calm in saying that he killed someone? Usually, even if you lie about something like this… There’s a moment of hesitation as you do it. There was none with him. Nothing at all that I could discern.”

“Two, why did Eunji hire him?” Jihoon asked no one in particular, “That also couldn’t have been a lie. That’s something that I can’t think of an excuse for anyone to lie about. Besides, Eunji did play therapy to Mr. Chwe’s entire roster of murderous delusions.”

“But I suppose,” Jihoon sighed. “At the end of the day, Mr. Chwe’s statement of ‘killing a maze’ must just only be a product of an overactive imagination. No matter how confident or truthful he seemed in saying it… There’s no way his story can hold up.”

“The ‘missing people’ that he pertained to that went inside the maze most likely are people who just decided not to come back from the normal lives that they used to have.” Jihoon says, “I don’t know what kind of maze that fairground was, but it must’ve had such a profound impact on them that they just don’t go back to the lives all they’ve ever known.”

“We really shouldn’t be taking statements like this. I just think it enables the population to just… be more delusional than to take help.” Jihoon admits into the microphone. “At the same time, I also worry about the future of KNPA if a person such as Chwe Hansol were to join their ranks.”

Lee Jihoon clicks off the recorder one last time. He takes it out and labels it accordingly. He puts it in a box underneath his desk and Hanjin will just take it whenever he feels like it. Just like that, Lee Jihoon’s first statement is done.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> thank u for reading! tell me if u liked it or smth bc i honestly dont know if this is scarey, confusing or like bad huhuhu
> 
> thank u again!

**Author's Note:**

> so there you have it! my first foray into writing horror!
> 
> updates will be SUUUPER inconsistent because its midterms and i really wrote this on a whim after thinking hard about it for weeks!!! if you do get invested well, rip 2 u
> 
> shout at me at @loonatin on twitter!


End file.
